The ATI FireGL X3-256 (Radeon X800 Pro AGP equivalent)

The ATI FireGL X3-256 is a workstation AGP graphics card and really surprised me with the compatibility and performance under both, Windows XP and especially Windows 98 SE.

Buy ATI FireGL X3-256:

Resources:

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[Heru]

This really takes me back. I ran an X800XT All-in-Wonder card back in the day (wish i'd not sold it on now). It was a glorified 9800 Pro when you really get down to it but man, it had some horsepower for it's time.

[AndreeckoTv]

0:30 3D glasses output (for VR headset back in these days).

[JohnSmith-xqpz]

When a Graphics card could run on a 12volt Molex connector...

[Synthematix]

The thing is the FireGL cards are the best ones to use simply because they are CAD workstation cards and they have been designed from the ground up for rock solid stability, they also have extra power transistors, great video.

[MaggotInfestedGod]

Hey, I haven't watched in a while but I think it's really cool you decided you feature yourself fully in the videos now! It's great to see the man behind the channel after so many years of amazing content and you look great!

[rzmtz]

nicely done again, gotta love older driver versions. funny just last night i was looking at my semi-functioning powercolor x850 pro and wishing it wasnt so semi-functioning and crashing upon driver install. the qx9650 system it belongs to isnt the same with a gtx 750ti katana inside

[phillycheesetake]

13:11 Phil I love the stock footage company you license these cuts from, very professional results!

I've been looking at those FireGL cards, but shipping has never made sense for where I am. Maybe one will come up locally. Thanks for the review.

[stfna]

Great video, as always. Love the haircut :). I have one of those, both the card and the haircut. What surprised me is that it's BIOS-moddable to full 16 pipes. Export BIOS, change it with hex-editor, flash it back and it runs with full 16 pipes. If you have the card(s) please do simillar tests with FireGL X1-128 (or X2-256). Great alternatives to famous R3xx cards.

[zackreichert]

I love this! I'm using a FIreGL X1-256 in my Gateway with a P3 on a slocket and it's a blast. I have a few Fire cards in the closet so I'll have to look at them and see if there's a X3 in the mix!

[smalec]

Finally! I bought this card back in 2018 for 20usd when i saw it in your friday pickup video. I was testing it in two of my builds (p4 3.06/xp3200, but sometimes this card was giving me black screen restart on firegl drivers. Today i tried again with catalist drivers and it works flawlessly.

[ceejayk]

Nice, I had a the X800Xt AIW, was my last AGP card, played at 1600x1200 on a 21"

[playtech]

I am amazed at the performance of this graphics card in Windows 98. It is excellent. Too bad they don't exist in my country... nothing at all. You can only get GF MX, TNT2, FX 5200, 6200, ATI 9200, some Voodoo 3. I really liked the review, very detailed, excellent that you have tried nglide, I was looking forward to it. Excellent work! I look forward to a high-end Ge Force FX video.

[ruxandy]

Hey Phil! The funny thing about the GLQuake benchmark is that, at 640 x 480, the video card is still a major bottleneck for that CPU. 😀
If you select 320 x 240 "-window" you should see up to 2000 FPS or more. Cheers and keep the videos coming, I really like the fact that you are now releasing videos on a regular basis! 🙂

[Shawn__Martin]

An x850 pro was my first new video card I had ever purchased. I bought it just so I could play FEAR on my Gateway E-4000. I have a lot nostalgia for x800 series and I'm glad to see there is a Fire-GL equivalent. Thanks for the trip back in time Phil.

[magnum]

Nice to see your face Phil. You're a retro legend!

[HelghastMerc]

I am going to be building an early WIndows XP machine, this weekend. The case should be coming in sometime today. The machine will be equipped with an AMD Athlon 6 4000+. The CPU is really good, but it generates alot of heat so I have to have a more modern case with a slot for a floppy drive. The GPU is an Ati Sapphire X1950 GT card, which was released I think in 2007 and is an AGP slot card. It's pretty solid. I did manage to get around 13000 score in 3D Mark 03 and 8155 in 3D Mark 05, so it's a very solid setup. I use Catalyst 7.4 drivers because I find that those drivers work the fastest with this card and has the best compatibility for late 90s windows games. I was surprised to see your face, in your recent videos. I thought, "So, that's what the legendary philscompterlabs looks like. Putting a mug on the myth, the legend."

[jeckjeck]

Nice video as usual, thank you phil.

For me there are two worlds in term of retro gaming : W98/DOS and Windows xp .
I prefer having two machines more period correct and avoid compatibilty issues.

For W98/Dos i stick with older "cheap" Hardware : Slot one mobo with pentium2 233 to pentium3 1Ghz, agp/pci/isa slots and all sorts of graphics cards, from the crappy ones up to Geforce FX.
You can buy/build cheap and funny slot one machines.

For Windows xp : I will go for fast cheap dual cores machines like intel core 2 duos and all sorts of cheap graphic cards up to GTX 750ti. You can also build fairly cheap rigs and have a lot of fun with them.

[SatanicMac]

ahhh the X800, I recently bought one myself! NOS from Japan. I swapped the ROM chip for a larger capacity and programmed it to work inside a Macintosh MDD tower. An absolute gem for the day, still looks and works great!

[mesterak]

Happy Friday Phil! My son and I enjoyed this one. Unfortunately this card is hard to find and expensive here in the US.

[sly_botts]

What a strange coincidence. I recently bought an x800 pro for my p4 retro pc and couldn't really find any good videos on this card. Awesome!